Saturday, December 5, 2009

A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End

Kicking off another line-up of kids’ books, I read A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End: The Right Way to Write Writing by Avi, the author of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (which I distinctly remember not finishing as a kid). A sequel to The End of the Beginning, this silly tale follows a snail named Avon and an ant named Edward.

Avon sits down to write about his adventures from the first book, but is facing a bit of writer’s block. Edward decides to give him some advice. This book is more of a cute tale for aspiring writers than something kids would actually enjoy, but the silly plays on words far outweigh any actual writing advice—although the last 3 pages are quite inspiring. An anteater, coming after Edward, is convinced that what he really wants to eat are aunts. (“In this world U can make a difference.”) The humor is a cross between the cleverness of The Phantom Tollbooth and the utter zaniness of Monty Python.

Still, there are 5 rules to writing:

1) Write about what you know.
2) Write abut what you don’t know.
3) Write about what you don’t know as if you did know it.
4) Make sure that when you’re writing about what you don’t know as if you did know,

conceal the fact that you don’t know what you’re doing.
5) Always leave your reader guessing.

So, there it is, from a Newbury Medal-winning author. Happy writing!

The Swan Thieves

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova was one of two books this fall on my own personal “highly anticipated” list (and thus not on my original list of books to get through). Kostova wrote The Historian, a blockbuster vampire novel that came out a few years ago, before vampire mania had really hit. That was good, but I enjoyed this new book even more.

It begins when a crazed artist bursts into the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and tries to stab one of the paintings. Robert Oliver, a successful contemporary artist and instructor, often works in a style similar to that of the nineteenth-century French Impressionists. One figure has occupied most of his canvases, yet it is not anyone in his life, as far as his psychiatrist, the main narrator, can discover. He is also obsessed with a little-known female painter from the nineteenth century, whose story quickly becomes a compelling mystery.

I received this book at a Southern California booksellers event where Kostova spoke. She said she started this book because she wanted to write about and describe paint. For someone really wanting to explore art in words, it was interesting that she chose Impressionism, as it isn’t highly regarded in serious art circles. Still, it was a perfect read . . . beautifully written without being too serious.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Shop on Blossom Street

I have never been a reader of romance novels. I sneer at pretty much everything that comes in a mass market paperback trim size. I loathe raised, foil-stamped titles. However, The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber was about a knitting shop, so I thought I'd give it a whirl as my latest gym book. (Knitting is a favorite hobby of mine.) And, I was pleasantly surprised!

Centering on 4 women who come to know each other at the titular shop, it's more grown-up chick lit than a romance novel. (Hen lit? I've never liked that term . . . ) One woman opens the shop after a couple of battles with cancer, another has just quit her job to try for a baby, an older upper-class woman decides to knit a baby blanket to feign enthusiasm for her unborn grandchild, and a younger woman chooses knitting for Project Linus as an easy way to fulfill her court-ordered community service. You can imagine the kinds of scenarios that ensue. And, it pretty much plays out like a Lifetime movie . . . but one of the better Lifetime movies that you don't regret watching!

I have a couple more of these books--hand-me-downs from my mother--stashed away somewhere. I will probably give them a whirl, too.

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Bell Jar

So, while I've been reading and enjoying immensely The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, I found myself at my parents' house over the weekend without it. So, I picked up my copy of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. (Yes, I have unread books at my parents' house, too. Not all of them are on the list . . . )

This book wasn't really what I expected. I knew it was about someone who worked at a magazine and who went crazy, but I thought she worked at the magazine longer and that her career had more to do with her craziness than it actually did. Instead, Esther Greenwood is in a month-long program at a Manhattan fashion magazine the summer before her senior year of college. My friend recommended this book to me when I started talking about working in New York publishing, but really Esther is only in New York for about the first third of the book.

Then, she goes crazy. Being Sylvia Plath, there are some interesting feminist comments, but it's mostly a description of her descent into crazy. An autobiographical description, according to the note at the back of my copy. I did enjoy . . . well, enjoy isn't the right word . . . I did think the book was well-written and compelling, but it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be considering what a classic it is. Still, I'm glad I read it.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Spooner

Well, I gave up on Spooner by Peter Dexter. I got 95 pages in and just couldn't bring myself to try to get to 100. It's not that it was bad . . . the writing was good and the setting and characters were well-conceived . . . I just couldn't get into it. It wasn't something that I looked forward to picking up, so I decided life was too short to force it!

Instead, I picked up The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. It grabbed me from the first few pages! I'm still only about 100 pages in . . . I don't know what's been keeping me so busy lately . . . but I look forward to posting about this one soon!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Girl in Hyacinth Blue

The third and final book I read on vacation was The Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. It was an ideal plane book in the sense that it was small and light weight . . . but on a 13 hour flight, it didn't have a high enough page count!! Even with a few hours of sleep and a couple of movies, it just barely lasted long enough!

The book wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be one continuous story about the creation of a Vermeer painting. Instead, it was short stories about various owners of the painting, touching on several historical periods. It was captivating enough, but didn't live up to the hype that surrounded it when it came out.

Since I've been back, I've been trying to get into Peter Dexter's Spooner, but it's not grabbing me. I give it 50 more pages before I decide if I want to ditch it. And in the meantime, there's been so much Tivo to catch up on! (Hey, I'm not that much of a book worm!)

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

Over the weekend, I attended local bookseller association's annual dinner. I was there to exhibit our new books . . . but I also came home with a few new books myself. The highlight of this event is the book box attendees get. It's filled with offerings from all kinds of publishers . . . and has led to my gluttonous situation. This year, unfortunately, the books weren't so great. I got a bunch of young adult books, which I'll donate to 826LA, my favorite nonprofit. I did end up with a couple of novels and a short story collection that look interesting . . . and Elizabeth's Kostova's new novel, which I've been wanting. I guess it's really better that I didn't end up with another huge stack--after all, I started this project because I had way too many unread books hanging around!

Speaking of the book box, I read one that I received last year over vacation: Tiffany Baker's The Little Giant of Aberdeen County. From reading the description, I thought there would be an element of magic--something akin to the movie Big Fish. Truly is a large woman living in a small town. Everyone calls her a giant. She uncovers the secrets of one of the town's ancestors, who was rumored to be a witch. She was the only source of medical help before a modern doctor moved to town. Truly deciphers the code and starts learning some of the herbal remedies. The book turned out to be a much more realistic novel than I anticipated, but it was still a good read. Perfect for an airplane, too! It was captivating and quick.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

American Wife

I just returned from a two-week vacation, where I had plenty of plane and beach time for reading! My ideal plane/beach read is something that is captivating and complex enough to hold my interest, but not too complicated or heavy, since I'll be frequently interrupted. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld was perfect!

It's supposed to be a novelization of Laura Bush's life, but it is first and foremost a novel. The similarities are there--she marries the wild son of a political family who buys a baseball team and later becomes president. But it's a literary telling of her life, with a couple of incidents--killing someone in a car accident and an abortion as a teen--that become linchpins for everything that follows. (The car accident actually happened, but the abortion is pure fiction.) She doesn't always agree with her husband's political views, but she sticks by him and is--mostly--supportive.

The coverage of Bush's presidential years center around the protests of Cindy Sheehan--except in the book it's a bereft father who camps out in Washington, hoping the President will meet with him. Flashbacks cover other events--the election controversies, 9/11--but it is the war and his handling of the war that receive the most attention. Which, really, is in line with Bush's legacy as currently viewed.

The Blackwell family in the novel isn't nearly as powerful as the real-life Bush family. His father was merely a governor, not a president, and his brother a member of congress. I thought that was a strange choice, since living up to or surpassing his father's presidential legacy was such an important component in other Bush made-up biographies, especially the Oliver Stone movie.

In any case, whether you choose to focus on the Bush parallels or take it at face value as a piece of fiction, this is an absorbing novel and perfect for vacation reading. I got through two more novels, which I'll post about shortly!

Friday, October 2, 2009

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

I wrapped up my children's books month with a really cute middle grade novel: A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. Ten-year-old Zoe Elias wants nothing more than to play the piano. She dreams of performing at Carnegie Hall. Her father, a recluse hooked on correspondence school courses, goes out and buys her a Perfectone electric organ instead. She is deeply disappointed, but starts taking lessons anyway. As she works her way toward the Perfectone Perform-O-Rama, she learns a lot of things about herself, her friends, and her family.

This quirky little book has the spirit of the old Beverly Cleary novels, and yet it's very current. I really liked that this brought a kids' novel into current times without adding the supernatural or adult themes. It has a good moral without feeling like a book with a moral. A very fitting end to children's book month. And now, as much as I love kids' book, I am looking forward to reading something written for adults!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Jack Plank Tells Tales

In a fitting follow-up to the Peter Pan prequels, I just finished Jack Plank Tells Tales by Natalie Babbitt, the author of Tuck Everlasting (which I have never read). Jack Plank is a pirate who's no good at plundering. He is downsized from his pirate ship because of this and must find a new job. I know what you're thinking--but this was published in 2007. While staying at a boarding house, his fellow boarders suggest a number of occupations--farmer, musician, baker, fisher--but he has an excuse, and a tale, about why he cannot be any of those things. From bridge-dwelling trolls, to mermaids, to a sailor who turns into an octopus, his tales are reminiscent of old pirate lore. It's a cute book, but not earth shattering.

It's timely that I'm reading so many pirate books in September, because September 19 is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I first started observing this quirky holiday when I worked for a children's books publisher and we published my favorite pirate book of all time: How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon. It's a really cute picture book about a little boy who gets swept up in a crew of pirates when they come ashore during his beach vacation to bury their treasure. We did a big marketing pitch for Talk Like a Pirate Day, which I believe was only a year or two old at that point. We even had an office party with themed games, costumes, and a cake!

So until next September, "Avast, yeh scurvy dogs! Argh!"

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

Continuing with my own personal children's books month, I just finished Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, the third book in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's trilogy of prequels to Peter Pan. Well, it was supposed to be a trilogy, but they actually just released a fourth in the series. This will be the end of the road for me, however. The first two books were pretty good, but this last one didn't have the same cohesiveness. Instead of just sticking to the stuff already familiar in Peter Pan lore--pirates, Indians, and flying fairies--this book threw in monkey-operated rocket ships, flying carpets, and the secret desert kingdom of Rundoon. And starstuff--the magical dust that allows Peter to fly--is responsible for the very existence of matter itself. So, Peter must literally save the world. Not even Harry Potter went that far. I mean, sure it was an epic battle of good versus evil, but he wasn't fighting to save the very existence of the physical universe.

There were a few very Disneyesque glimmers. My favorite was when a large deposit of starstuff makes a pirate ship fly--just like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland. I can't remember if there's actually a flying ship in the original Peter Pan or the Disney movie, but it sure makes me want to go ride the ride.

One week left in September, and I'm hoping to get through a couple of more kids' books before growing up again in September. We can't all live in Neverland!

P.S. If you'd like a more adult version of Peter Pan, see here:
http://onlygreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/child-thief-by-brom.html

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Classic Children's Books Made Into Movies

Anticipating the upcoming releases of two picture books made into feature films--Roald Dahl/Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and Maurice Sendak/Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are--Entertainment Weekly speculated on a few more picture books they'd like to see as movies:

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2009/09/21/classic-childrens-books-film-cloudy-meatballs/

I think my favorite pitch here is the Bradley Cooper rom-com version of Green Eggs and Ham . . .

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Love in the Present Tense

My latest gym book, Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde, is a Lifetime movie waiting to happen. I was suspicious when it said it was written by the author of Pay it Forward, but it was compelling enough. Pearl is raped, kills the attacker--a cop--and has a son 9 months later. She eventually disappears, and her son Leonard is raised by Mitch, an unsuspecting young web designer who happens to be Pearl's neighbor. This was a quick read--perfect for the elliptical. The characters were well developed, and the story was intriguing. But I won't be quick to pick up another book by this author.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

I became a Dave Barry fan back in the mid-nineties when the sitcom about his fictional self, "Dave's World," was on t.v. I started reading his newspaper column and loved his dry sense of humor. When I heard he was writing kids' books--about Peter Pan, no less--I had to check them out. I read the first book in the prequel trilogy, Peter and the Starcatchers, a couple of years ago. Co-penned with Ridley Pearson, it told how Peter got his magical flying and anti-aging powers.

I normally don't like it when authors write about characters created by more famous authors. Case in point: all the terrible Pride and Prejudice spin-offs. But these books are really pretty good. The second in the series, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, continues in the mythology set up in the first. There is a secret society of Starcatchers, whose job it is to ensure that the potently magical starstuff stays out of the wrong hands and is retrieved in the mystical Return. Of course, being an adventure story, all goes awry and Peter must save the day in a dashing climax equal to any of the Harry Potter books. Well, almost.

The real Peter Pan author, J. M. Barrie, even makes a cameo in this book. As Peter and Molly, mother to the future Wendy Darling, are racing through London they stop to ask Mr. Barrie for directions. "Second path to the right," he advises, naturally. I look forward to continuing my own personal Children's Book Month and reading the third book in the planned trilogy (although a fourth book has just been published), Peter and the Secrets of Rundoon.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

September is Roald Dahl Month!


September, so the promotional poster furnished by Penguin told me, is Roald Dahl month! And, I've decided to make September Kids' Books Month for my reading list. But, to celebrate the first, I decided to go off my list for one book and pick up something by Roald Dahl.
Danny the Champion of the World was recommended to me by a very good friend of mine. I didn't read much Dahl growing up--we read James and the Giant Peach in the second grade, and I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory just a couple of years ago when the Johnny Depp movie was coming out. So, Danny was a bit of a surprise to me in that there was no magic. Danny and his father live in a gypsy caravan behind their filling station. His father, Danny learns, has a hobby of going poaching for pheasants on nearby Mr. Hazell's land. On the night before Mr. Hazell's big hunting party, Danny hatches a plan so he and his father can bag more pheasants than any poacher ever has.
It was a very cute story, but I must say, I prefer Mr. Dahl's more fantastical tales. And speaking of fantasy, it's time to head back to the list and finish up Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry's Peter Pan trilogy . . .

Thursday, September 3, 2009

(Almost) End-of-the-Week Fun

Oxford University Press, publisher of the famed Oxford English Dictionary, has set up a website to Save the Words!

http://savethewords.org/

When new words enter the dictionary, antiquated terms are retired . . . until now. Adopt your own word and pledge to use it in everyday conversation. I adopted veteratorian, which means subtle. The site e-mails you an authentic Certificate of Adoption, and for a mere $25, you can have your word printed on a t-shirt!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Imagined London

In the movie Sabrina, the title character quotes Gertrude Stein and says, "America is my country but Paris is my home town." And that's how I feel about London. When I studied abroad in England during college I fell in love with the city, it being so well-mannered and full of tradition . . . not to mention literary pedigree. So, when I received Anna Quidlen's Imagined London for my birthday, I couldn't wait to read it. (Although it still took five months to get to the top of my queue.)

I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but I am learning to love travel writing. Quindlen explores London through the many lenses of the city's portrayals in literature. From the dark back alleys of Dickens to the posher surrounding of Waugh, she visits places made famous in novels. I thought this would be right up my alley--and I did enjoy it very much--but I thought I was rather well-read in British literature until I read this book! There were books and authors I had never heard of . . . the Forsyte saga, Nancy Mitford, Trollope . . . But it was still a fun and charming way to look at what the book jacket called "the world's greatest fictional city."

In high school, I wanted to be Anna Quindlen. Back then, I was sure I would grow up to be a serious journalist. Quindlen had just hit the Oprah Book Club with her novel Black and Blue, and then I learned that she worked for the New York Times, too. That's exactly what I wanted to do--work for a major newspaper (although I had my eyes set on the Washington Post) and write bestselling novels on the side! Well, I grew up to do none of those things. But, I enjoyed Quindlen's writing nonetheless.

14 books down, 45 to go!! September will be Kids' Books Month . . . the first of several, I'm sure.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Reading--Good for Your Health!

I read a couple of blog posts this week about how good reading is for your health--both mental and physically! First, the Pepsi Optimism Project found that 88% of people surveyed said reading a book was the ultimate optimism booster. It didn't say what they were reading . . . I'm guessing it's nothing by John Steinbeck or William Faulkner. Here's the link to the story:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/monday_morning/want_to_feel_better_about_yourself_read_a_book_123891.asp

Then, in light of the raging debate going on over health care, historical novelist Jessica James came up with 5 easy--and free--ways to improve your health in your local bookstore:

1. A book specialist can help you find just the right book--with no co-pay.

2. You don't have to pay a deductible at a bookstore, and the value is unbeatable.

3. Bending over, standing up, crouching down to look at the bottom shelf is good exercise. (Repeat as necessary.)

4. Carrying a large stack of books to your car is great for cardio and muscle-building.

5. Books provide entertainment, promote a sense of wellbeing and insure you will have something to read in the waiting room.

So, if you don't have the cash to go see your shrink, head over for a free recommendation by your local book specialist and read to boost your mental health!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Fashionably Late


Well, I finally met a book I couldn't finish. Nadine Dajani's Fashionably Late sounded like a cute chick lit novel. I picked it up for my latest gym book. The flap copy talked about quarter-life crises, a girl who fails her accounting exam and decides to go to Cuba instead of the trip to Cancun she planned with her colleagues, then, of course, figures out the meaning to life . . . Except I couldn't get past page 40.
First, the brand-name-dropping started to annoy me . . . Christian Laboutin this and Stila that . . . Then, as her boyfriend is proposing and she finds herself unsure how to answer, the main character accuses him of being selfish for proposing when she's waiting to hear the results of her big accounting exam. Then, as if it weren't doomed already, the nail in the coffin: our heroine reveals that she's 22 years old. I almost flung the book across the room from my perch on the elliptical. (My friend and coworker was on the machine in front of me, so I resisted.) Maybe it was bad writing, or maybe I'm just getting old, but I just didn't care about this adolescent's problems!
It's too bad, too. The book has a great cover--as you can see! The dark red and sky blue on the spine is my favorite color combination. Plus, the writer had the most thoughtful opening to her acknowledgments I've ever seen: "A book sitting on a shelf in a store may seem like any other commodity, a thing to be bought and sold. But to those who write, a book is a dream at the end of a long road, one I might have strayed from were it not for the many people who believed in me." Unfortunately, the heroine of the novel was not nearly as thoughtful as the author. Oh well, onwards and upwards. At least this gets a book off my list!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Two Little Girls in Blue

I decided to take advantage of the waining days of summer to read a purely entertaining, beach read. Mary Higgins Clark's thriller/mystery Two Little Girls in Blue was undeniably un-put-down-able! I've read a few of her mysteries--usually over Christmas break--and enjoyed them. But this was the best of hers that I've read! Twin 3-year-old girls are kidnapped one night while there parents are off at a company dinner. They are instructed to pay a whopping $8 million ransom. They do and get instructions on where to find the girls, only to get there and discover one of the girls still missing and a note saying the kidnapper had accidentally killed the other child. Using twin telepathy, the returned twin starts telling her mother that her sister is scared and wants to come home. The rest of the book is a thrilling race against the clock to find the other twin. The characters are engaging, and the plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat!

I've often said that Mary Higgins Clark is a good story-teller, even if she isn't known for her poetic sentences. Other than a few awkward bits of dialogue that were used to divulge some back story, that didn't bother me in this book. I can't remember which book it was--it might have been one of the Christmas stories she co-wrote with her daughter--but she kept annoyingly saying that the character had a container of coffee. I'm pretty sure she meant a to-go cup of coffee from Starbucks, but kept using the word "container." It was very distracting. Where was the copy-editor!? This book, I'm glad to say, used the proper nouns to describe what the characters were holding. I highly recommend.

Friday, August 21, 2009

The Red Queen

The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble was published by the first company I worked for. I had already moved on to my current job, but when I went back to visit, a former co-worker just raved about it and gave me a copy. Well, I don't share her raves. Split into two halves, the first half is narrated by the Korean Crown Princess in the 18th century. Based on a true story, she tells of her life at the palace and how her husband went mad and was executed in a most horrific fashion. It would be a captivating story, but it is narrated by the dead crown princess in modern times. So, while telling her 18th century tale, she talks about later events and philosophies, such as Freud and modern psychology. It was a bit off-putting, and almost seemed like a lazy way for Drabble to be able to include her own modern knowledge. On the other hand, I suppose it could also be considered a creative way to reinterpret a classic text. But it was still off-putting.

The second half is about a scholar who reads the crown princess's memoir on her way to a conference in Seoul. The story moves her, and she visits to some of the palaces and such where the crown princess would have lived, but that's about all the interaction she has with the text. She's a scholar of medicine, so it's not like the memoir is part of her research, just a fun plane read. While the two parts don't seem to fit, the book does finally pick up about 75 pages from the end when the scholar has an illicit affair at the conference.

I think the best part of this book was the epitaph at the beginning:

"The dead weep with joy when their books are reprinted."--The Russian Ark, Alexander Sokurov, 2003

I couldn't help but thinking, so do the living . . .

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Petite Anglaise

My latest gym book, Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson, was quite the hidden gem! It looked like a run-of-the-mill chick lit novel, but upon closer inspection, I saw that it was actually a memoir. Catherine decided early on that she wanted to live in Paris. And, after studying abroad in college, she never went back to her native England. She quickly found herself in a committed relationship with a Frenchman--although he wouldn't marry her--and they had a child together. When their daughter was a toddler, their relationship cooled, and Catherine was looking for a creative outlet, so she started a blog and adopted the persona Petite Anglaise.

Of course, her relationship falls apart, and she actually starts dating [spoiler alert] one of her blog readers . . . all of which she recorded in real time as she was blogging. But more than just a recap of what she blogged about, the book talks about how blogging affected her life and her decisions. "I was anonymous," she writes, "I went about my business incognito, and yet there I lingered in the minds of complete strangers." Later, when telling a friend that she keeps seeing a guy she's not that interested in to spice up her blog, her friend says, "You might want to try putting yourself first, and not that blog of yours . . . don't live your life to please your readers."

I haven't read Julie and Julia, but I did just see the movie (which is fabulous!!) and some of the same themes crop up there. Julie's husband accuses her of being self-absorbed as she puts everything else on hold to cook her way through all the recipes so as not to disappoint her readers. Catherine, too, is accused of becoming self-centered and not paying attention to what her friends are going through. As Julie says in the movie, blogs are inherently ego-centric. (Yes, I realize I'm saying this on my blog. Whatever.) I'll be interested to see if more blogs-turned-into-books address the role of the blog in the writer's life. In any case, Petite Anglaise was a great read, and much more captivating than most of the chick lit that's coming out these days.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

3 Little Book Gluttons Go to a Book Swap

Goodreads.com sponsored a book swap at Book Soup yesterday. (See here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/08/scenes-from-the-goodreads-bookswap-with-kogi-bbq-at-book-soup.html) I have a growing stack of books to get rid of, now that I'm about 20% through my list (finished book #10 last night and have about 20 pages to go on book #11!), so I e-mailed a couple of friends to see if they wanted to go with me. I know what you're thinking--isn't that like inviting an alcoholic to a free-for-all at a liquor store? Friend #1 was very eager! She, too, has been complaining about how many books she had sitting around. Friend #2 acted like I was asking her to cut off her right arm. "What's a book swap?" she asked. "Does that mean I have to give away some of my books? I love all my books!" I assured her no one would force her to give up books, but--since she's getting ready to move at the end of the month--she did show up with a couple of bags full that she was willing to get rid of.

I have a few friends who can't bear to part with any of their books. Even publishing industry folks who acquire scads of books! I get sentimental over some--don't ask to even borrow my Harry Potters or The Time Traveler's Wife--but most of the stuff I read I donate to libraries or friends as soon as I've read them. I'm afraid my apartment would like the houses of those people you see on Oprah who have that hording disease if I didn't!

We all had a great time at the swap--especially since the Kogi Taco Truck was there, a must try for anyone in LA!--but none of us wanted to take away any books . . . all of us being book gluttons and all . . . Friend #1 did extremely well. She didn't bring home any books--even though she kept going back for one last look to make sure nothing was calling her name. Friend #2, the one who thought I was asking for her first born, took a couple of Friend #1's books. I, too, took a couple of Friend #1's books. One was a collection of short stories by writers I really like--Nick Hornby, Dave Eggers, Melissa Banks--and the other was Curtis Sittenfeld's second novel, The Man of My Dreams. I really enjoyed Prep, and American Wife is on my list, so I figured why not!? No, I won't be adding these to my list. I'm sure there will be a phase 2, since I've found a few unread treasures on my bookshelves at my parents' house . . .

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

When I'm Done . . .

No, I'm not anywhere near being finished with my list of 59 books. I am, however, close to finishing #10 on the list, and that makes it feel like the end is in sight. Yes, you may need a really large telescope to see it, but it's there. I have this fantasy about what will happen when I've read all the books in my apartment. This is how it goes: I'm sitting at home one evening with nothing to watch on t.v. I decide to pick up a book instead, only to realize I have no unread books! So, I go to the local independent bookstore and start browsing the shelves for something that strikes my fancy . . .

Now, the reality is that this will never happen for me. Yes, there may come a time when my stack of books to read has actually run dry, but I don't think I'll ever walk into a bookstore and not know what I want to buy. Even now, I have a little mental list of books I want to read once I get through my list. There's another list of books I will read before I get through my list (The Lost Symbol, Audrey Niffenegger's new novel, etc.). But, it's a nice fantasy, nonetheless.

One thing I definitely plan on doing when I finish is rearranging my books. I just read this amusing article in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/21/books-arrange-james-purnell I've been practicing the "cram it in wherever it will fit" method of book shelving recently. But, as I get rid of most of these books as I'm reading them, I look forward to organizing what's left. A friend of mine has organized her books by color--it looks great and she swears she's still able to find things. I'm sort of thinking I'll do mine by genre . . . because I have my really smart books from college prominently displayed, and really, who wants to hide those in favor of all my books with red spines? Granted, underneath my smart books is my collection of children's picture books that I started when I worked for a children's books publisher. I don't know what that says, except maybe that I'm a bit schizophrenic . . . at least as far as my book collection is concerned! We'll see. I think I will have plenty of time to think about this as I work my way through the remaining 49 books . . .

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Red River

I'm not sure where I picked up Red River by Lalita Tademy, a historical novel set in Louisiana during the Restoration. It's an advance reading copy (ARC-a paperback book printed ahead of finished books to send to reviewers and bookstore buyers), so I must have picked it up at one publishing event or another. It seemed promising--Tademy's first novel, Cane River, was a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club pick. Roll your eyes if you must, but Oprah doesn't pick out and out clunkers. Even the way the ARC was produced shows that the publisher had high hopes for the book. Most ARCs have slick, cheaply printed covers and use either Xerox or super pulpy paper on the inside. This one has a matte, embossed cover with flaps, high quality cream-colored paper, and even rough cut pages! (That's when the pages are slightly uneven on the edge--you usually see it on fancy novels or books that are trying to look vintage.)

Well, this book was a bit of a disappointment. I seriously considered ditching it around page 100. The first half of the 400 page book describes a horrible massacre in the town of Colfax, Louisiana. In 1873, blacks are allowed to vote for the first time and they vote in the Republican party--who, I gather from the text (my AP American History Class too distant in the past to be of much help) are sympathetic to the newly free black population. The incumbent government refuses to shift power, and when blacks protest at the town's courthouse, white supremacists blast them out, killing 150 men. Now, I'm not denying that this is an important story that should be told. But this section of the book could (and should) have been cut to 100 pages.

The second half follows the next 2 generations of the Tademy and Smith families, both who played an important part in the courthouse standoff. (The author used her own family's history as a source for the story, so it is based on actual people and events.) This part was a much better read, although I still didn't think the book was exceptional. I assume from the accolades that Tademy's first book, Cane River, was better than this one. Which leads me to believe that my friend, a former children's book editor, is on to something when she says most people only have one good book in them. Of course, when I googled Red River to see how it was received, it had glowing reviews from respectable sources, so what do I know? Still, part of me thinks those reviewers got sucked in by those rough cut pages . . .

Saturday, August 1, 2009

The Kindle Debate

The Kindle. It's been quite a hot topic in publishing circles for the past year or so. The industry has been predicting--mostly fearing--the domination of the electronic book for longer than that: I went to NYU's Summer Publishing Institute in 2002 and it was a hot topic then. A lot of bookish people don't like the idea, preferring the feel of a book in their hands, even the smell of the ink and paper. And I was firmly in that camp . . . until my friend, a literary agent, brought her Kindle with her on her last visit. Then my dormant gadget geek kicked in and I decided I had to have one!

The sleek design of Kindle 2.0 . . . the crystal clear type on screen (much easier on the eyes than I had imagined) . . . But what really sold me was when I figured out that I could take a Kindle out in public, and no one would know what I was reading. I was in the midst of the Twilight Saga at this point and hurrying to finish before an upcoming business trip, because I didn't want to be seen reading Twilight on the plane. But with a Kindle, I could read about teenage vampires or any other trash and no one would ever know!

At least one Kindle aficionado has even taken his e-reader along to a book signing, as seen in this story from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/business/media/15kindle.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Of course, being a David Sedaris signing, the witty author inscribed "This bespells doom" on the shiny plastic surface.

Even as e-readers become more and more popular, I believe paper books will be around for a long time. And, even though the price for the Kindle recently dropped, I still haven't ordered one. Please--I let nearly 60 paper books build up in my apartment. How gluttonous would I be if I could acquire a new book at the click of a button and didn't even have to wedge it onto an already over-stuffed shelf?

Speaking of all those books, I'm nearing halfway through a historical novel called "Red River," but if it doesn't pick up soon, I will ditch it.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Livin' the Moment

Okay, I despise the idea of a self-help book. But, I bought Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' the Moment because the author, David Romanelli, is my favorite yoga teacher of all time. (By all time, I mean all of the 7 years I've been doing yoga.) When I found out he had invented workshops called Yoga & Chocolate and Yoga & Wine, I knew he was the yogi for me! With his goofy and irreverent sense of humor, this is not your typical self-help book. He described it as Eat, Pray, Love with an attitude. While the underlying message is to enjoy the present moment and to find pleasure everyday, he communicates this message through ridiculous stories about farting in yoga class, using manufactured pheromones to pick up women in a club, and--my favorite--a guru who combines all the current fitness crazes into yogaerobalatetate (pronounced yog-aroba-lahtay-tah-tay, in case you were wondering). Yes, most of this is made up. In fact, I'm surprised the book doesn't include some kind of James Frey-style disclaimer.

But, among the silly stories are gems of advice about slowing down and living a meaningful life. He includes many poignant quotes, like this one from the nineteenth-century clergyman Henry Ward Beecher: "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs--jolted by every pebble in the road." And "Being rich is a measurement of how much money you have. Being wealthy is a measurement of how much time you have." Yes, there are many books that spew similar wisdom, but Dave intersperses enough humor in the book that you can digest it without wanting to gag.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Madeleine is Sleeping

Sarah Shun-Lein Bynum's first novel Madeleine is Sleeping has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while. It garnered several stellar reviews when it came out in 2004, and I have to agree: it was quite an inventive novel with a charming story. As you can probably infer from the title, Madeleine, the main character, is sleeping. The novel follows her in her dream world, and it is told in short, dream-like flashes. The beginning is a little tough to get into--the very short (less than a page) chapters are almost prose-poems, introducing each of the fanciful characters: an obese woman who sprouts wings, a musician's wife whose body turns into a cello, an obese man who performs fart concerts. You can hear these passages being read aloud in that too-serious, too-slow, too-deliberate voice that poets use at readings. But as the characters' lives become intertwined and the story picks up, it becomes quite engrossing.

The story itself is something akin to Chocolat or Audrey Niffenegger's Three Incestuous Sisters--it is set in a provincial French town in the early nineteenth century (at least from what I can tell) and there is a definite element of magic to the story. Which works, given that this is basically an extended dream sequence. At times a little earthy, it is almost like Alice in Wonderland for grown-ups. It is also a quick read, which helps on a project like mine. Of the 257 pages, I'd say fewer than half have words on the full page.

So, I'm 7 books down with 52 to go. Is it indicative of my gluttony that I'm thinking about starting a list of books to read after this is over? Near the top would be Bynum's new novel published last year: Ms. Hempel Chronicles.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him

There's no time like the summer for reading chick lit. Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him by Danielle Ganek--besides having a really great title--was lent to me by a friend who thought I'd like it since it's set in the art world. (I work in publishing at a prominent art museum.) It's not the best chick lit--or assistant lit, if you want to get technical--I've ever read, but it was enjoyable. Mia McMurray is a gallery girl at a mid-range Chelsea gallery. At the opening of what promises to be the most prominent show in the history of the gallery, the artist steps outside for a cigarette and is killed by an oncoming taxi. See--smoking really does kill. The rest of the book is about the ensuing scramble to snatch up the few paintings the artist had produced in his lifetime, most importantly the centerpiece of the gallery show: Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, a portrait of his niece.

The climax of the story occurs at Art Basel, an annual international art fair in Switzerland. What struck me most about the book is how similar Art Basel sounds to BookExpo, the biggest publishing industry trade show in the US. Mia remarks that gallery employees spend the majority of the fair complaining about their crappy booth positions. Same at BookExpo. Mia says not much important business happens at the show, because most of the pieces are sold before it opens. Same with BookExpo--except most of the business (ie book orders) happen after the show. Mia says despite this, you can't not go to Art Basel if you want to be taken seriously in the business. Same with BookExpo--until recently. This year, a lot of major players pulled out due to the tanking economy. I feel like the big companies can get away with this--what bookstore isn't going to see what Random House is publishing in the fall? It's trickier for the little guys, who might go unnoticed. It will be interesting to see if the show retains its importance moving forward.

Keeping in the spirit of summer is for chick lit, I just started Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson as my gym book. Well, I thought it was chick lit, but turns out it's more of a memoir about a Brit who moved to Paris, fell in love, and had French exploits. But the pink cover is totally chick lit. I'll let you know how it goes . . .

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The God of Animals

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle was a freebie I acquired through one publishing event or another. It has been my most recent gym book, but I finished it up today when we were sent home from work due to a brush fire. I love LA! This book was a surprise--I didn't expect much, but it turned out to be a beautifully written, multi-layered story. Set on a horse farm in the desert, it is narrated by 12-year-old Alice Winston. Her family has fallen on hard times, with her father trying to rustle up new riding students to make ends meet. He finally signs up privileged Sheila Altman, whose mother's checks far outweigh her show potential.

Perceptions play an important part in this book. The characters try to hide the truth, but others are not as naive as they appear: from twelve-year-old Alice to the sheltered housewife to Alice's shut-in mother. When Alice's grandfather visits unexpectedly and asks how things are going, she replies, "We had the barn painted. The trailer too." "I saw that," he replies. "Everything's nice and shiny, all right." Through the book, Alice learns that you can't hide things from people. Towards the end, she says, "I wondered how I could have ever believed that I was protecting anyone from anything. The world was what it was. There were no secrets. There were only things that went unsaid."

Never having gone through the ubiquitous horse phase most girls seem to have, I didn't think I would relate to this world of riding lessons, grooming, and horse shows. But the writing was engaging and just about anyone can relate to what Alice is experiencing, from her school life to realizing her parents aren't perfect. I would recommend this coming-of-age tale to anyone looking for an easy but not frivolous read.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Left Hand of Darkness

I received The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin as a birthday gift from one of my best friends from college. Another friend of ours absolutely raved about it. I, however, do not share their enthusiasm. Of course, I'm not a sci-fi fan, so I'm not really the right audience for this book. I was convinced to read it, however, when the friend who gave it to me reminded me that it was a favorite book of the cute guy in The Jane Austen Book Club.

The book is about an envoy to a distant planet where the people are ambisexual: they are asexual most of the time, only taking on gender for a few days each month. They do not always take the same gender, and they are free to mate with different people, or swear a partnership with one person. Now, I appreciate the talent and imagination it takes to create these alternate worlds. I don't doubt LeGuin's genius--or that of Tolkein and the other sci-fi/fantasy greats. I'm just not a fan myself . . . Harry Potter being the obvious exception. I read an article once on the difference between sci-fi and fantasy. Sci-fi is based on fact: set in this world and using technology that exists or is possible. In fantasy, as the name suggests, anything goes; it does not rely on the rules of this world. With this ambisexual race, I would put Left Hand in the fantasy category, although it is packaged as sci-fi.

I probably would have stopped reading this halfway through, but my friends' enthusiasm for the book and the love story mentioned in the jacket copy made me keep going. At least I thought the jacket copy mentioned a love story. I reread the blurb when I was 2/3 of the way through the book and still no romance. What it actually says is "in the course of a long journey across the ice he reaches an understanding with one of the Gethenians--it might even be a kind of love . . . " Well, it might be a kind of love does not a love story make. So, chalk this one up to literature appreciation. Now that I'm headed to Vegas for the weekend, I'm looking forward to some utterly trashy chick lit!

For those keeping count: 4 down, 55 to go!

Monday, June 29, 2009

The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb is the best book I've read this year. It's a big book, covering a family's history over several generations and a good chunk of American history along the way. But the central event of the book is the Columbine shooting. Lamb must have done painstaking research, and it shows in the haunting scenes of the shooting itself and the aftermath. The narrator of the book is Caelum Quirk, a high school English and creative writing teacher at Columbine. His wife, Maureen, is a school nurse at the same school. Caelum is actually on the east coast following a family death when the attack comes, but he learns of it through his wife's experience hiding in a cabinet in the library, the main site of the violence. The rest of the book is about how this event changed their lives and how they attempted to recover. One chapter, a little more than halfway through that ends with a life-altering accident, is so poignant it could stand alone as a short story.

Woven in through Caelum's family history is the fictionalized story of the first jail specifically for women built in the United States. Quirk Correctional Institute, named for Caelum's great-grandmother, who founded the institution, sits in the middle of the family farm where Caelum and Maureen return after the shooting. Lamb deftly combines the political aspects of the fight for such an institution with the personal events of the characters' lives. Descriptions of life in a modern-day prison contrast with the ideals held by Caelum's great-grandmother for a telling picture of today's society. It all combines in a rich, layered story with many parallels.

About two-thirds of the way in, I was afraid it was spinning out of control, however. After the accident in that chapter that is so beautifully written, new characters are introduced who have just fled Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. It gets to be a little much with Columbine and then Katrina--why not throw in 9/11 and the SARS outbreak? (Don't worry, the former gets a couple of passing mentions.) But it comes together again in the last 200 pages, and Lamb's thoughtful afterword gives some context to all the current events in the book. And it really does fit with the book's theme of overcoming evil and destruction. Overall, I highly recommend this book!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Brideshead, The Movie

I watched the recent Brideshead Revisited movie last night. It was pretty faithful to the book, yet different enough to hang together as a movie. It's worth watching for the gorgeous locales alone! Emma Thompson was perfect as Lady Marchmain.

I was a little nervous watching it. Usually, when I really love a book, the movie is nothing but disappointing. There are some I've even refused to see--Snow Falling on Cedars is the one that comes to mind. I think I'm looking forward to the Time Traveler's Wife movie . . . but again, it might only be disappointing.

The reading is still going well, even though my book-finishing momentum has slowed. It's not that I'm not trying--I'm halfway through The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb . . . in all of its 700-page glory. It's a great book so far. It covers the Columbine shootings and some of those scenes are so haunting. I first read Wally Lamb when I got a copy of I Know This Much Is True as part of the studio audience at a book club episode at The Oprah Show. True story!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster

When I started this project, I told myself I'd adhere to a strict 100-page rule: if a book didn't grab me by page 100, I'd ditch it. My friend, a literary agent, convinced me that 50 pages was sufficient--that's the criteria Nancy Pearl (www.nancypearl.com) uses. If it's good enought for Nancy, it's good enough for me.

But, with The Life All Around Me, my second book into this, I broke my rule. I started thinking about ditching it about 80 pages in . . . but since it was only a 200 page book, I figured I was close enough to the end that it had to pick up soon. The first book, Ellen Foster, had been gripping . . . certainly this one would pick up. Although I should have been suspicious since the same publisher didn't publish the sequel . . .

It did pick up around page 100, and then I read the rest of it the same day. But it took that 100 pages to get used to the rhythm of the writing. The author used a strange sentence structure, especially since the narrator is supposed to be a brilliant child prodigy. There were grammatical errors, and I was never sure if it was intentional or not. In either case, it was a mistake. A fifteen-year-old applying for early admission to Harvard (her application letter opens the book) should not make gross grammatical errors.

So, while I would highly recommend Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, the very first Oprah Book Club selection I ever read, the sequel is skipable.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I've Got the Horse Right Here

My current gym book (yes, I read on the elliptical. These books go very slowly, since I only read about 20 pages at a time, 3-4 times per week) is The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle. It takes place on a horse farm. Most girls go through a "horse period" during childhood, reading books like My Friend Flicka and Black Beauty, perhaps starting a collection of resin horse figurines, and, if they're very lucky, taking riding lessons. I was not one of those girls. I missed the whole phenomenon, although as a young book glutton I'm sure I had copies of both books. A good friend of mine took riding lessons for a year or so, and I used to go to the equestrian center with her to look at the horses. To me, they were just big smelly animals with lots of snot in their noses. Reading this book--about horse shows and riding lessons--feels like a second chance at this rite of passage.

The God of Animals and The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster, which I'm also currently reading, are proving to be an interesting pairing. Both are narrated by pre-teen girls, and both girls are severely manipulative. In God, a girl in the narrator's grade in school has drowned. Not particuarly close to the girl except for a shared project in shop class, the girl is exaggerating their friendship to insinuate herself into the drama. In Life, Ellen Foster calls the foster home administrators to have the other two girls in her foster home removed, so she is the only child left with her guardian. Not to say those girls didn't deserve it . . . Since I'm still not very far in either book, it's hard to say what all this manipulation will come to, but it is an interesting commentary on pre-teen girls. I think we all knew at least one of these girls growing up . . . and hopefully it wasn't us!

Both books are considered adult novels. (Adult as in not children's, not XXX.) There was an interesting argument a few years back in one of the publishing world journals about what constitutes a YA novel and what is an adult novel when the narrator is a young adult. This came up around the time of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which sold well in both markets. I think the difference is whether it's a childlike view of the narrator's world, or a view seasoned by adulthood. Both of these books have the latter. There's enough nuance in the narrative that we see the manipulation working its way out in the girls' actions along with hints of the pain the girls are feeling that leads to the manipulation. It'll be interesting to see how each story progresses.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Brideshead Revisited

Book one down, countless to go . . . Brideshead Revisited was not at all what I thought it would be. I have to admit (and it pains my literature major heart to say this) that I was interested in this book because of the movie that came out last fall with Emma Thompson. Judging from the ads for that, I was expecting a novel of manners set in a fancy estate in the English countryside. And while it had some of that, it dealt with much deeper issues than I was expecting . . . religion, adultery, impending war.

Brideshead was much more captivating and a quicker read than I anticipated. Certain elements reminded me of Atonement and The Talented Mr. Ripley--a man becomes enamored with a wealthy and quirky family. I was a little surprised when I opened the book to a picture of the author and discovered that Evelyn was a he. You would think this would have come up in one of my countless literature classes. I guess I never quite hit the 20th century in British lit.

Next I'm going to pick up the sequel to Ellen Foster . . . .

Some observations fro Mr. Waugh:

"For in that city [New York] there is neurosis in the air which the inhabitants mistake for energy."

"Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I great fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you."

Monday, June 8, 2009

The Project

I have a serious addiction to acquiring books. I also enjoy reading them . . . but somehow I can't read as quickly as I acquire. I work in publishing, so I get a lot of free books. My friends know I love reading, so I receive a lot of books as gifts. Then, just to top it all off, I go out and buy books . . . new books . . . used books . . . and now I have too many books! So, I've decided to read all the unread books in my apartment over the next, well, however long it takes.

I'm not going to pretend that I will stop acquiring new books until I read all the ones I already have. There are too many big books coming out this fall to do that--a new one from Elizabeth Kostova, a new Audrey Niffenegger novel, and yes, the new Dan Brown. But, I've already cut back.

I was just in New York on business (at BookExpo, where I tried to find some free books, but there were very few to be had this year!) and my friend and I went into The Strand. If you've never been, The Strand is the most wonderful bookstore ever. They have everything you could want . . . and everything you never knew existed. Going in, I told my friend not to let me buy anything. She's quite the bookie too, and she's planning on reading War and Peace soon, so she didn't want to buy anyting either. Well, just like a gym buddy, it helps you stick to the program when you have a friend holding you accountable. We both--amazingly--made it through without buying anything. (Of course, I fully endorse buying lots and lots of things from your local independent bookstores!!)

So, if I slow down my acquisitons, and keep myself accountable with this blog, I really thing I can get through all these books! It may even be easier than getting my Michelle Obama arms . . .

The List (in no particular or any way organized order):

Brideshead Revisted, Evelyn Waugh
The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle
Love in the Present Tense, Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, Tiffany Baker
Fashionably Late, Nadine Dajoani
The Story Girl, L. M. Montgomery
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble
Madeleine is Sleeping, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons
Red River, Lalita Tademy
Two Little Girls in Blue, Mary Higgins Clark
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Noisy Outlaws, Unfriend Blobs, and Some Other Things that Aren's as Scary, McSweeney's/826NY
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland
The Shop on Blossom Street, Debbie Macomber
No Place Like Home, Mary Higgins Clark
Spooner, Peter Dexter
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
Imagined London, Anna Quindlen
Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' the Moment, David Romanelli
American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, Danielle Ganek
Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker
A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End, Avi
A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Linda Urban
Jack Plank Tells Tales, Natalie Babbitt
Our Lady of the Forest, David Guterson
Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas
The Bitch Switch, Omarosa
Emma Brown, Clare Boylan
America's Queen, Sarah Bradford
Sweetsmoke, David Fuller
The Grift, Debra Ginsberg
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fanny & Zooey, J. D. Salinger
Falling in Love with Natasha, Anna Manardo
Flesh and Blood, Michael Cunningham
The Emperor of Ocean Park, Setphan L. Carter
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Graff
Songs for the Missing, Stewart O'Nan
The Book of Unholy Mischief, Elle Newnark
Jane Austen's Guide to Dating, Lauren Henderson
The Road to Yesterday, L. M. Montgomery
Billy Budd, Herman Melville
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Howard's End, E. M. Forster
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
Les Liaison Dangereuses, Laclos
The Winter Rose, Jennifer Donnelly
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Petite Anglaise, Catherine Danderson
The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb